Tech Junkie: Tools to help you stop spam calls

Teenage daughter looking messages in a smartphone and ignoring her furious mother. Bad family communication concept by new technologies

Tech Junkie: Tools to help you stop spam calls

Teenage daughter looking messages in a smartphone and ignoring her furious mother. Bad family communication concept by new technologies

Spam calls are getting worse! Most of us get multiple calls per day on our cell phones and there seems to be no way to stop them. Signing up on the donotcall list is supposed to help but many say it doesn’t. What can you do? Your best option is to avoid answering those calls using tools that tell you which numbers are suspcious. Here are a few of the tools I suggest:

TrueCaller App – This app is available on both Android and iPhone. The app uses a database to check phone numbers as a call comes in. Truecaller will pop up a warning if it’s a suspicious number or known spam number. The app will also alert you if it’s a known safe number. The app also allows you to block those calls altogether if you prefer. TrueCaller is a free app.

HiYa App – HiYa is another app similar to TrueCaller that uses a database to help warn you about numbers as those calls come in. It can also block suspicious calls if you prefer. It’s also free for iPhone and Android.

Carrier Apps – Some of the cell phone carriers offer similar services either built into your phone or as an addition app. Check with your carrier. Personally, I wouldn’t pay for this service, it should be free. If your carrier wants to charge you for it simply try one of the apps I mentioned above.

Truecaller.com Search – If you want to do a quick search to get details about any phone number use the truecaller website. They offer a basic search of their database so you can find out if a number has been flagged as spam.